The young Singaporean adult...

EVEN before he graduated from university, Mr Lawrence Kim was already running a million-dollar business.

The Singaporean had taken over
his father's marine inspection and service company in 2005 when he was
just 23, and turned it into a million-dollar venture in just a few
years.

'My father had been doing a good job with it,
but he didn't really want to grow it,' said Mr Kim, now 30 and the
managing director of Ebenezer NDT Services.

'I saw the potential in it and I couldn't let my father's efforts go to waste.'

But it would appear that young Singaporeans like him might be in short supply.

On Tuesday, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat
expressed concern about feedback he got from chief executives, who felt
that young Singaporeans lack the drive and the confidence to venture out
of the comfort zone to succeed.

Several employers and human resource consultants interviewed yesterday said this is true to some extent.

They said that compared to the older
generation of Singaporeans, young adults would rather stick to something
that they are familiar with and can handle than take up new challenges.

They also lack the tenacity to weather tough
times - such as when they are unhappy at work - and will quickly look
for greener pastures.

They offered some reasons for this shift in attitudes.

Too comfortable

YOUNG adults do not have the responsibilities
that their parents, who lived through Singapore's early years, had. They
lead relatively comfortable lives and most do not have to struggle to
put food on the table or help support their families.

The statistics bear this out: Median household
income has risen from $438 in 1972 to $2,303 in 1990, $2,638 in 2000,
and $5,000 in 2010.

Mr Paul Heng, managing director of human
resource consultancy NeXT Career Consulting, noted that for many young
graduates, finding and keeping a job after leaving school may not be an
immediate concern.

'Compared to young people like those from India or China who are here to work, young Singaporeans are less hungry,' he said.

Singaporean parents, he pointed out, also tend
to support their children emotionally and financially even after they
have graduated.

Such a culture puts young Singaporeans at a
disadvantage compared to their counterparts in the West, where the norm
is for them to leave the nest, some as young as 18, said Mr Kurt Wee,
vice-president of the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises.

Americans, for example, learn to make decisions for themselves and take charge of their lives at a younger age, he said.

He, too, felt that young Singaporeans may not
see the need to exert themselves because they are well-provided for by
their parents. 'They do not feel the push to be creative and find
opportunities for themselves.'

Risk averse

MR KOH Yew Hiap, managing director of cleaning
solutions company UIC, said that because life here is comfortable, many
are reluctant to take up career-advancing opportunities in developing
countries like Vietnam and China.

'They worry about the standard of living in
those countries. They are also hesitant about having to live in a
different environment and culture,' he said.

Mr Josh Goh, an assistant director at human
resource consultancy The GMP Group, said Singaporeans in general also
prefer to lie low and not speak their minds.

'They tend to speak up on things like benefits
such as leave and medical coverage, but seldom on how the company can
do the work better,' he said.

Singaporeans also want everything to go as
planned, said Mr Goh, and they would rather not take on something new
and risk making a mistake.

'Perhaps it has got to do with our education
system,' he said. 'Some people may see making mistakes as part of a
learning experience, but Singaporeans do not like to fail.'

Political science lecturer John Donaldson from
the Singapore Management University (SMU), who has been in Singapore
for the last six years, echoed this.

He has found Singaporean students to be driven in that they want to better themselves, but are risk averse.

Some from the business school have said they
were interested in doing social science majors, but decided against it
because they feared this would limit their job prospects.

Ebenezer NDT Services' Mr Kim said he had set
up a fund to help students in his alma mater - SMU and the Singapore
Polytechnic - who want to start businesses, but was disappointed that
not many took up his offer.

'Many young Singaporeans want instant results, but a successful business takes a long time to build,' he said.

'I spoke to some undergraduates recently and many are contented in their high-paying jobs.'

Education system too focused on good grades

MS STEFANIE Yuen Thio, joint managing director
at TSMP Law Corporation, said it would be unfair to say that all young
people lack drive. Her firm has 'many young lawyers whose energy,
initiative and passion put us - even in our younger days - to shame'.

That said, she felt the education system places an undue emphasis on academic achievement.

'This forces students to focus on exam scores
at the expense of a wider education... When confronted with the
challenges of the business world, they are often ill-equipped to
respond.'

She added: 'I have found that it is the law
graduates who are intelligent but are not so academic who generally make
better practitioners. They are hungrier and are used to thinking
outside the box to get the results they want.'

Mr Koh agreed and said that drive for good
academic results does not always translate to the drive to excel in a
career. 'In the workplace, there are other factors like having
experience and being at the right place at the right time,' he said.

Looking for instant rewards

YOUNG Singaporeans are often too impatient to reap their rewards, said Mr Wee.

He and Mr Goh noted that younger people often expect to see instant rewards from the work that they have done.

'They may have done well in their jobs for one
or two years, but they may not necessarily have enough experience to be
promoted and be in decision-making positions,' said Mr Wee.

Mr Goh added: 'There is this mindset where
they just quit when they are unhappy. Once they feel unappreciated, they
leave for greener pastures.'

Some, however, caution against branding the young as lacking in drive and ambition.

National University of Singapore sociologist
Paulin Tay Straughan said choosing the easier route does not mean that
young Singaporeans lack drive.

'Is it necessarily bad that the youth choose what is tried and tested?' she said.

'From a rational perspective, most would pick
something that is comfortable, but it does not mean that they will not
do their best.'